Pfizer: Friendless Fairytales

Sydney agency WiTH Collective has collaborated with Passion Pictures’ London-based directing duo McBess & Simon on a series of fun web films to market Pfizer’s quit-smoking service.  

Going live today via Facebook, YouTube and owned media, it’s the second phase of pharma giant Pfizer’s 'Some things are harder on your own' social campaign and carries the message that you're four times more likely to quit with the help of a healthcare professional.

In phase one, WiTH Collective created The Impossible Audition, three films in which auditioning actors tried and failed to perform two characters instead of one, while this phase approaches the theme of going it alone with Friendless Fairytales. Featuring McBess and Simon’s trademark cheeky style, the animations retell classic stories with the main protagonists having to endure their trials and tribulations “billy no-mates”.

So, for Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, the yellow brick road becomes a ‘Really Hard Esplanade’ and Snow White (above) is let down when the huntsman, who should be rescuing her from a deranged step-mum pelting her with rotten apples, turns into a malevolent giant spider instead. In a third film (below) a doctor highlights the benefits of getting help from someone like himself.